(KMN) 9.24: Selective Outrage - Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get it started. A wet Wednesday here
at NewsRadio eight forty whas at five oh six it is,
it's raining outside, at least it is here in downtown Louisville.
I think we're expected for the next twenty four hours
to have some rain off and on, so be prepared
this morning. We'll keep you updated on the forecast and
also keep you updated on the roadways because, as you know, whenever, whenever,

(00:22):
it's raining, and we've got wet conditions like this that
could impact your commute. So again we'll get you caught
up as best we can throughout the morning. Here it
is Kentucky and his morning News Coffee in company with you,
Nick Coffee. That's me, Scott Fitzgerald, alongside John Alden, John Shannon.
They are in the mix with us here as well.
And I guess we'll I guess we'll just get started
with what happened last night, and that is Jimmy Kimmel.
He did make his return. And I guess I'm now

(00:45):
just completely wired with this new sleep schedule to where
there wasn't even a thought of me staying up to
actually hear it. However, I'm not even sure if I
could our local affiliate here in the market who has
who has ABC is owned, So I guess Tanga that
would be the Yeah, so Tanga, They're not one that

(01:06):
I believe has has said that they're not going. Honestly,
I have no clue. I guess I could have watched it,
but I didn't have any interest and certainly wasn't gonna
stay up late. But once we wrapped up the show yesterday,
we found out that it wasn't just going to be
Sinclair Broadcasting Group that decided they weren't quite ready to
bring Jimmy Kimmel back. They of course are one of
the bigger ABC carriers. Also Next Star decided to do

(01:27):
the same thing, and that led to of course many
ABC stations that folks have because of their provider, they
did not show Jimmy Kimmel. So I've yet to hear
much of any any any of what he said other
than just there's clips here that I have in front
of me. But I'll be hearing these for the for

(01:48):
the first time. So it sounds as if the six
day suspension that of course led to Jimmy Kimmel probably
being talked about, maybe more than he has in a really,
really long time. He did come back. I do have
some of that sound, but I'm hearing it for the
first time here. But from what is from the early
reaction is that he didn't. You know, nobody seems to think, well,

(02:08):
I shouldn't say nobody, but at least those that stayed
up late to watch wanting to hear what Jimmy Kimmel
had to say, those that were eager and ready to
share their opinion, which everybody can do that now with
the power of social media. They did not see him
as being genuine, which isn't that kind of to be expected.
I'm not sure there was a scenario that Jimmy Kimmel
could have actually come out, not to say that he

(02:30):
did and people just have their mind made up about him.
I don't know if I believe that. I haven't heard
a second of it, but I'm not sure what the
scenario would have been where this could have been talked
about today where not universally, but let's just say the
majority felt like, Okay, he made a goof and he
did a good job of kind of, you know, saving

(02:52):
face a little bit or at least cleaning up the situation.
I just don't know if that was possible, Scott.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's not. And it goes to what we said. I've
said this before in the show. In media, twenty percent
love of you, twenty percent hate you. The rest of
the middle don't care. So there's no way anybody could.
No matter what Jimmy Kimmel said last night, there was
not going.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
To be this overall collective.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Okay, We're all happy with his response because as we
saw with the Charlie Kirk thinging different people in the media.
You know, people have their mind made up and you
said it best. We were talking off the ear, Nick
and you said it best. I mean, people have their
minds made up where they want to go, and we
go now because of social media, to where we find
those answers.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
We have that herd mentality.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
We don't.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I don't want to say critical thinking has gone away,
because there are great critical thinkers still in the media,
but it's not what he used to be.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, I think we can easily. We don't. There's not
as much even as far as just being programmed to
do critical thinking, be open minded, give things some real thought.
We're not really programmed anymore in society to do that
because we don't because we don't need to. We don't
have to, because we can believe what we want and
easily find any validation for that in in a millisecond

(04:01):
with with information online. Uh. And again that's why I
think more than anything when I when I say the
media is one of the factors in US being so divided,
I don't mean coverage. That's also certainly a part of it,
especially when you consider the news yesterday that Google admitted
that they censored I mean that that is that is insane.
As far as that we'll get to. That's gonna be
a big story today as well. However, when I say

(04:21):
the media is a factor in us being so divided,
it's because we we have we can easily consume non stop,
endless I don't want to call it propaganda. Maybe some
of it's true, maybe some of it's not. But if
we want to feel a certain way, we have access
to feel that validation. And then also within that the

(04:42):
validation that everybody that doesn't agree is lunatic. I mean
that that's that's that's where we are. So that's a
scary thing if you really think about it.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
So yeah, we'll let you hear Jimmy, I'm not gonna
play the I mean, I don't even know if we
have access to play the entire thing, but some clips
from ABC he did. He did go on to say
that Erica Kirk, the forgiveness that she showed touched him deeply.
I guess that's where people are claiming they don't necessarily
believe it. And then of course he did go on
to say it was never his intention to make light

(05:13):
of the murder of a young man. And again, who's
to say, you know, only he knows if he truly
had that intention, But any kind of remark about anything politically,
when when discussing a young man's assassination on a platform
that you have, is just gross anyway, right, Like what

(05:35):
you know, it's just the need to have any little
the need. And that's what's really been said about this
whole thing, is that it's just it's all it's done,
is just.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Nobody's really went out here and benefited from any of this.
And ultimately there's a heavy responsibility on us. Nick and
I talk about a listener, We those of us who
digest what's in the media to be responsible enough to
seek out the right, the right answers, and we've kind
of lost.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
We've lost, at least to an extent, some who really
want information, They just want to feel pay Yeah, exactly
good stuff. All right, let's get to a quick update
of traffic and weather again. It's a wet start here
on a Wednesday. We will let you hear some of
this Kimmel sound on the other side. We've got a
lot to get to this morning. Again, it is Kentucky
and it's morning news News ready to wait forty whas so,

(06:22):
I would imagine our five o'clock crew, they probably go
to bed at an early hour if they're getting up
this early, so they may not have heard or maybe
they didn't have any interest in listening to Jimmy Kimmel
last night as he made his return to ABC again.
To be clear, I wasn't not gonna watch because I'm boycotting.
I just I've never I've never watched. I say this
being one thousand percent just honest. It's not even really

(06:44):
to make any kind of point. I've never watched Jimmy Kimmel,
not once, not because of any any political thoughts, not
because of I mean, I just that's I am the
demo that never caught on to that being a part
of entertainment for me, and that's I know I'm not
alone in that demo to where that's why these shows
have I mean they're bleeding viewership, Kimmel Colbert. I mean

(07:08):
just that format of late night TV talk show is
not what it once was, or even close to it.
So I don't say that I've never watched it because
I'm anti him. I don't really have much of an
opinion of him. In fact, when I think of him,
I think of The Man's Show, just because of I
remember watching those clips when I was younger, thinking wow,
this is something you don't typically see. But here's some
of what he had to say last night as he

(07:29):
made his return, And again we'll start with this clip
here where he mentions that he did not ever intend
to make light of a young man's murder.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
I don't think what I have to say is going
to make much of a difference. If you like me,
like me, if you don't, you don't. I have no
illusions about changing anyone's mind, but I do want to
make something clear because it's important to me as a human,
and that is you understand that it was never my
intention to make light.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Of the murder of a young man. I don't. I
don't think there's only things funny about it.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
I posted a message on Instagram on the daves killed,
sending love to his family and asking for a compassion,
and I meant it.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
I still do.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group
for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply
disturbed individual that was really the opposite of the point
I was trying to make. But I understand that to
some that felt either ill timed or unclear, or maybe both.
And for those who think I did point a finger,
I get why you're upset. If the situation was reversed,

(08:31):
there was a good chance I'd have felt the same way.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I have many.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Friends and family members on the other side who I
love and remain close to, even though we don't agree
on politics at all. I don't think the murderer who
shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone. This was a sick person
who believed violence was a solution and it isn't it ever.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
So you know, no real apology there, which I wasn't
expecting one, and I think the reports yesterday that he
wasn't going to make any kind of return. But the
one thing that well, there's a lot to unpack there.
I'll start with this. I don't know if I believe
that those holding back tears. I don't know if that
was genuine. But I don't really care. It's not like
I'm angry and I'm overcome with just can you believe

(09:16):
he's out here just really trying to to, you know,
make us seem like he's sympathetic. I just I'm not
wired to really even care if he is genuine or not.
I just don't care, to be honest with you. But
what he said is one of the one thing he
said that I just wish we would all acknowledge a
little more, because then it would actually, I think, take
us down a few notches when it comes to just

(09:38):
being such so at each other's throats. And that is
that had the situation been reversed, he would have felt
the same way that other people felt. I mean, isn't
that I mean again, him acknowledging that is to me,
that's at least worth something again doesn't change much of anything.
But to know I mean that, to me is an

(09:58):
acknowledgment of the hip ho hawc recip as far as
certain things are are okay when it's when it's your side, right.
The selective outrage, just like you know, the selective outrage
about Kimmel being muzzled his First Amendment Right. Yet, I
don't think those people upset about Kimmel are really making

(10:20):
a big deal about what we found out yesterday, which
is that the Biden administration was clearly silencing people who
used a platform to share their opinions. It's selective, and
that to me is just again it's the admission that
there's so much hypocrisy. Right now, We'll let you hear
more of that throughout the morning here and again, I'm
not trying to change your opinion on I mean, have

(10:41):
you heard that for the first time. You make of
it whatever you want. All right, We've got trafficking weather
updates on the way. Also a sports update on the
way with John Shannon right here. I'm sorry he's he
can't do sports. He's a jack of all trades, but
that's Scott Fitzgerald is gonna do sports. But John will
be with us for news coming up around five thirty
right here, and news rady to eight forty whas call
on balls and Strikes. I like that. I will say

(11:02):
I wouldn't be qualified to be to be an umpire,
but also all been an umpire before. Yeah, that's true,
and I and I proved to myself I wasn't qualified.
I was the I was the umpire uh in the
in the Chris Mack celebrity Actually it was just a
Chris Mack uh softball game for the basketball team. The
basketball team played a softball game just to have a

(11:24):
fan event for fans to come out, and I was
a I was a guest umpire and I referred to
second base as second plate, which confirmed my my lack
of knowledge of the sport of of baseball. But uh, yeah,
the umpires in baseball, the uniform really awkward, just being honest,
Like the uniform in in in referees, officials in different sports.

(11:49):
I mean it's it's rather consistent as far as just
you know, the stripes, but in baseball, and again I
get why they have to wear what they wear. They're
they're near, I mean, they're very close to the action
and whatnot. But I feel like it would be uncomfortable
and it would be a really thankless job, to be
honest with you. We need more people who are willing
to just know they're gonna sign up to go do
something and everybody's gonna hate you. There's rarely will you

(12:11):
ever at any point get any compliment about, you know,
good job, you called a good game or whatever. So again,
I'm not built for it, but shout out to those
that are, and that's what we're doing here. Thank you,
John Shannon Colin, Balls and Strikes here on news radio
eight forty WHS. So we'll let you hear more of
what Jimmy Kimmel had to say. It seems as if

(12:32):
the reaction overall is that those bothered by what he said,
and of course that's understandable that did want to hear
how he responded what he said on his return. It
sounds like a lot of those that at least in
the early stages here sharing an opinion, don't seem that
he was very genuine. They don't believe that there was

(12:54):
a lot of genuine genuine as to what he said.
But again, I'm sure there's some that listen to it
and aren't really incline on to hop on a social
media platform and start yelling about it or you know, uh,
they just I wouldn't shock me of people who don't
really think about this that much. They heard it and thought, okay, yeah,
I have nothing wrong, nothing really wrong with what he
had to say. But again, you can make of it

(13:16):
whatever you want. But I just know that there's many
that have already had their mind made up before they
heard anything. Rather it be that they think it's that
they think it's disgraceful that he was that he was
pulled off the air at all, and then of course
those who think that he's you know, the worst, the
worst human ever. So all right, let's uh, let's talk
quickly because this will be something we do get to
throughout the morning here as we continue to learn more.

(13:36):
And I'm not sure what else we can we can
we're gonna learn, but it is a big story, and
I I I guess more than anything, I was naive
to think that anything like this would actually happen, but
it is. But it did happen. I mean, Google admitting
to censorship under the Biden administration is is crazy. I mean,

(13:57):
to admit that they were selected just pulling content from
from YouTube that did not violate its own rules but
did not support the messaging from the Biden administration. As
far as what they wanted. I mean, that's that's insane.
I mean nice to know that the company themselves is

(14:19):
one admitting that there was pressure from the White House
during those years. They also called their own actions Google
did quote unacceptable and wrong. But this of course comes
years after an an investigation led by Jim Jordan, the
Judiciary chairman who subpoenaed Google earlier this year, and it's
part of that response. Google, you know, they've restored the

(14:40):
accounts for those who they just they banned for political
speech because it didn't it didn't align with the political
views of the Biden administration. I mean, I don't I
don't know. Maybe this is uh, maybe this is something
that does need to be said for those that are
let's just say, you've lived more than half your life

(15:01):
without really social media being a big thing, and you know, creators,
you know, everybody's utilizing the plat some of the biggest voices,
the most powerful people as far as they're reach right now,
they're doing it with an independent platform. I mean, Joe Rogan,
we know of him because he's a celebrity before anything.
He has an independent platform. So it's just crazy to

(15:24):
think that this won't can I mean This is what
this does is those who claim, let's just say that,
let's just say that, the people that claim that the
election was rigged, and and I don't know, there's plenty
of people who think that kind of stuff. And leading
up to the election that that that obviously the Republicans won,

(15:44):
there there was finger pointing about some shady stuff going
on to where they're just trying their best to you know,
to rig it. This is the kind of stuff that
gives them ammunition because clearly, I mean, the biggest, one
of the biggest platforms out there, YouTube, owned of course
by Google, admitting that they censored people who clearly just
viewed things differently than the Biden administration. Like, that's disgusting.

(16:09):
And I guess when I say I'm naive, I'm just
someone that just assume will Certainly nobody would really do that,
because they that would be wrong and they would get
in trouble, they would be there's just no way they
would do that. The people that would have any kind
of influence on that aren't that stupid. But if you're
getting pressured by the administration of I mean the Biden administration,

(16:30):
who time's president, I mean, it's pretty powerful influence right,
as far as influencing you to do certain things based
off what you believe is the best for your livelihood.
So I mean, I mean disbelief almost, but I shouldn't
have been right. Maybe this is just an eye opener
for me that like these kind of things will happen.
All right, quick break, We've got trafficking weather on the way.

(16:52):
We'll get you caught up on how the roadways are
looking as we get a wet start here on a
Wednesday morning. Also, we'll talk to Rory O'Neil from NBC.
He's going to join us coming up on the other side.
Looking forward to our daily chat with Rory, and I'm
curious to get his thoughts on what they uncovered in
New York City, which we're talking of one hundred thousand
SIM cards and just the look of it looked like

(17:12):
something from a movie. But we'll talk to Rory about
that and a lot more coming up here on the
other side. News RADI waight forty whas It's news, Rady
Wate forty whas Coffee and company with you here on
a Wednesday morning. Let's bring in Rory O'Neill of NBC News.
Rory before we discuss Jimmy Kimmel's return. I do want
to discuss the New York cell phone plot. I mean

(17:32):
the servers uncovered, the SIM cards. That of course is
in conjunction with the UN General Assembly meeting. Tell us
what this means. A lot of people see the visual
and think that look, that looks pretty sophisticated. As far
as some type of a hack, some type of a setup.
What do we know here? As far as this big
story from yesterday, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
And very very neat that's also what struck my. I
think radio engineers should could learn a lesson from what
we've seen and neatly this was all set up. Good point,
you have to tell me who sang that song, because
that's going to drive me nuts for the next twenty minutes.
But yeah, no, so this whole network is set up.
They find one hundred thousand SIM cards, three hundred computer servers,

(18:13):
and apartments and office spaces in a thirty five mile
radius in the tri state area around the UN. Now
was this meant for an attack with the UN to
coordinate or to make an attack worse? We don't know.
The Secret Service still doesn't know a lot. They don't
know who put this there. They're trying to track it
all down, but that means they've got to go through
one hundred thousand SIM cards. So there's a lot of investigative,

(18:37):
investigative work that has to get under way here. So
we don't know a lot, but we do know that
this had the capacity to send about thirty million text
messages a minute. Oh yeah, could have bogged down, essentially
shutting down entire cell networks across New York, making it
impossible to communicate with cell phone. So that would have

(18:58):
been obviously a big issue. And the the real concern
is what if this was a one two punch, like
they do something I'm not going to suggest anything, but
they do something like a bombing, But then and then
they do this, How much worse would it have been
if you kno got the communications when trying to respond
to some sort of an attack. And then the nightmare
scenario is how many more of these things are out there? Yeah,

(19:21):
so that's really the big concern.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now, do we have many clue as to what tipped
them off? Because I mean, you would think that anybody
involved in this entire situation would be pretty I mean again,
when it comes to the I wouldn't be shocked when
you consider just what this is, although we don't truly
know what it is. But when it comes to the
technological component, I mean, to me, these seem like people
from a tech sad that seemed to be sophisticated enough

(19:44):
to where maybe they left no traces, left no fingerprints
if you will, well, right.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
So that's one of the big questions. We don't know
who's involved. They've measured some traffic that could implicate Russia, China, Mexico,
so all in other countries with don't terrorist connections. So
that's all part of the investigation. Was this just a
work through to help those criminal networks contact one of
each other one another secretly. That's also something else that's

(20:11):
being investigated again. Or was this part of a larger plot.
Who was renting the spaces? Right? Somebody who was paying
the rent every month for these empty office spaces, empty
apartment buildings again across a tri state area thirty five
miles within that area of the un And then how
many more of this are operating? Who was buying one
hundred thousand SIM cards? Could that be tracked down too?

(20:34):
You know, there's a lot of this going on and
to your first question. This all began as part of
a swatting investigation. The Secret Service set up a special
team specifically to look at these incidents where high profile
members of the administration were getting hit with swatting calls.
That's where you would call the police and say, hey,
someone is being kidnapped at Sylvester Stallone's house, just making

(20:56):
it up, and then the swat team responds to Sylvester
Stallone's house while he's just sitting there watching Netflix, going
what the heck's going on? So calls like that have
been happening, but targeting members of the administration instead. So
that's how this investigation began, and that's how they stumbled
across this.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
I think when we look at Jimmy Kimble making his
return last night, there's many that already had their mind
made up and already have their mind made up moving
forward about this entire situation. But it's really only been
hours since this happened. Do we have any feel for
how his return and what he had to say, how
that was received.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Well, I think he acknowledged it, like, look, if you
like me, you like me. If you don't, you don't,
I'm not going to change your mind here. It's pretty
much what he said last.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Night, which it is hard to do that right, right exactly.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
He brings up a good point, but you know, look,
a lot of cities didn't see that because the Sinclair
and Next Our groups refused to air the show last night,
so that's still an ongoing issue. Most of his ire
was directed at the head of the FCC. They saved
plenty for President Trump too. He also said it was
never his intention to harm the memory of Charlie Kirk,

(21:59):
who was also very complimentary to Charlie Kirk's widow, Erica,
saying she was the picture of grace on Sunday when
she said that she could forgive the man who shot
and killed her husband. He said, we all should be
more like her at this time. So we're very complimentary
of her. And again he was almost on the edge
of tears a couple of times during the monologue, but

(22:19):
otherwise it was a pretty typical show. I'd say after
the first half hour.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Rory is always appreciate your time, Enjoy the rest of
your Wednesday. We'll talk tomorrow, my friend.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Thank Nick.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
That's Rory O Neale, NBC News. All right, let's get
a quick update of traffic and weather, and we've got
sports coming your way as well. It is a wet
start here on a Wednesday, and we hope you stick
with us. Why would you not? Where would you go?
I mean, I know you have options, this, other things
she could be doing, But why wouldn't you want to
be with us right here on News Radio eight forty
whas